Eagle under sail by Thomas Farrell

The Eagle is a 295-foot, three-masted sailing barque with 21,350 square feet of sail. It is homeported at the Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Conn. It is the only active (operational) commissioned sailing vessel in the U.S. maritime services. Today's Eagle, the seventh in a long line of proud cutters to bear the name, was built in 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, Germany, as a training vessel for German Naval Cadets. It was commissioned Horst Wessel and following World War II was taken as a war prize by the United States. On May 15, 1946, the barque was commissioned into U.S. Coast Guard service as the Eagle and sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to New London. Eagle serves as a seagoing classroom for approximiately 175 cadets and instructors from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.